Memeorandum

January 11, 2017

Trump Press Conference

Comments

I am not going to do any more arguing about Ryan, but I want to say something, and it goes to maryrose saying Ryan is "more virtuous" than Trump.

This goes to the heart of why I get upset at Ryan. Ryan may be sexually virtuous (although perhaps he's never been tempted, but I digress), but there are various forms of virtue.

One is self-sacrifice. Trump has that virtue if nothing else. He has given up billions of dollars, his business, the plane that he loves (come January 20) and his privacy. He has been vilified by almost all of the press. He has had people who he thought were his friends turn their backs on him. He has risked his reputation and ultimately his life.

He did not have to do this. He could have lived the way he was doing and no one would have thought anything of it.

He stepped forward and spoke for the average man. He spoke for the inner cities. He spoke for workers, and people being overrun with illegal aliens. He spoke for Christians and Jews.

So to me, Paul Ryan, in his gated community with his wife who made her money from Goldman Sachs, has not risked much of anything. Sure, maybe his privacy. I don't see him being vilified by the press; they treat him with semi-respect. It's Trump who gets called a racist, even though he received awards from the NAACP. It's Trump who is called homophobic, even though he employs hundreds of gay people and has never said a word about it.

I am sick of it. In a just universe Trump would be considered a damn hero.

This is the time of year when the Gulf looks mighty tempting. However, unless I hit the lottery I doubt that will happen. Daughter says she would like to have a goal of moving to Florida, so maybe I can tag along.

At any rate, enjoy the weather, Beasts. I am glad to know somewhere it is not gray and getting ready for FREEZING RAIN, my most hated form of weather.

MM: "One is self-sacrifice. Trump has that virtue if nothing else. He has given up ... (lots)."

Another item is that his kids are hassled. Like that cowardly, pompous, self important jerk on the airplane. I don't follow Trump minutia but what little I know of the guy makes me think that would be a biggie to him.

What's maddening to me about Ryan's comment today is that it shows he doesn't get it - the MSM is his adversary, and every question they ask is an attempt to trip him up or drive a wedge between him and President Trump or is a la d mine In some other way.

As a leader of the GOP and someone who will be on camera a lot, his inability or unwillingness to grasp that and respond accordingly (which does not mean emulating President Trump - Porch provided a good example of another way to challenge the frame of the question and go on the offensive) is unacceptable, or should be.

Tucker Carlson had an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on The_Donald Reddit site today. I have sorted the comments by question and answer, but it's still sort of hard to follow. Lots of interesting comments from Tucker, though:

The reason Zippy is doing what he is doing the last days is to distract Trump from enacting his promised 100 day agenda. He wants Trump to pounce on all his newly EO's instead of doing it tactically like he has proposed.

Guess what Zippy, you could carry his lunch pail. He is a builder and they are not distracted from schedule unless it affects the build. Go back to organizing or whatever your ilk do.

Granite construction pulled 100x what Solyndra acquired from the stmulus. The decrepit California highways are much less disgraceful as a consequence of what the ' a more perfect union' represents to its citizens.

I hear you, MM. But since my internet bugabooz have just recently been resolved, I'm loaded for bear re Speaker Ryan.

=====end comment to MM======

It's not that I disrespect Speaker Ryan, like I completely disrespect Pelosi Galore or DiFi or Hildo Balloon Clintoona, John McStain, Lindsay Cracker, Chuck "the seltzer man" Schuma, or Fauxcahontas....

I do not hold Speaker Ryan in high regard the way that I hold Donald J. Trump in high regard.

Speaker Ryan is a creation of the GOPe and congressional establishment.

A fine young man becoming a congressman who's now in the cat-bird seat, Speaker of the House.

He was Snakebite Romney's VP candidate. Heh?

That makes for a dangerous man in a position of high influence.

Several reasons for this, all because of his myopia complex.

My Dad refers to men like Speaker Ryan as somebody "who's not been anywhere in any rooms of significance with other men and women who are *self-made more powerful* than himself."

It was one reason Dad gave me two options on my 17th birthday. Be the first man in our family on both sides to graduate from college or become a Navy or Marines officer.

Why was that choice? Because Dad knew that if I went to the local schools for college or didn't join the military, I'd more than likely not be around anybody of "consequence."

So I went to a first-rate university and joined ROTC (vietnam era) and washed out (vision) before my first "cruise". I was first to earn the baccalaureate in my family.

While doing so, I managed to meet quite a few "captains of industry" (the family who invented the electric lights on coal mining helmets and head gear; the inventor of polymers for Prell Shampoo and teflon, the list goes on.)

Ya, I still had to make my own way. But meeting and associating with top-caliber powerful men *and their offspring* (my classmates) helped me develop a healthy sense of "You ain't shit, boy. Now get to work."

Does this make me better than Speaker Ryan? No. But I am probably trusted more because of my road than careerist politicos like the Speaker.

Ryan strikes me as another wonk who believes in his own press clippings and the adulation of his constituency. That makes him dangerous.

Any man who's not been "around the block", had to meet a payroll, had to raise capital for a business venture, deliver on that capital, and been responsible for making decisions which determined whether people were paid or starved, is not really somebody I trust to be in charge of the nation's wallet/pocketbook, bank accounts, and investments.

Period.

That's my bias. That's the road I took after leaving the teat of "hire education" 100 per cent back in 95.

For 25 years I thought I needed a steady check. I'd always dabbled in entrepreneurial ventures and did quite well. But I felt like I needed security more.

That risk averse part of my profile was challenged when a political firefight saw me tossed out on my ear for going to war with Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean in Vermont, while working at "their" university.

The safe road turned out to be an ambush when it was time to step up the "ladder" and start doing some real things in my niche back then. Neither Sanders nor Dean are risk takers. Nor was their network who'd invited me in "to help them do the right thing" re local Indian affairs.

So what I don't trust about Paul Ryan is *based* 100 per cent on my own bias.

But my bias isn't myopic. I *know* bureaucratic mediocrity when I see it. Bureaucracy *does that* to a man.

But what makes Speaker Ryan most dangerous is that he is risk averse in this era when we need BOLD leadership....not more wonk.

And now that there is promise of BOLD leadership under Mr. Trump, while the media and the GOP insiders are trying to delegitimize him, there is Golden Boy Speaker Ryan waiting for his come to Papa moment.

If there is to be 8 years of President Trump, and 8 years of continued thrashing of EmoCrats, with 8 years of "Speaker Ryan", we could be looking at having a Wonkamaniac for president in 2024.

And having "all that" ahead of us with Speaker Ryan, after not getting as much out of a Trump presidency as we could because Mr. Trump was busy fighting with him over where to place the deck chairs on the USS Titanic, will only prolong this death knell that's shadowing our Republic today.

Any man who's not been "around the block", had to meet a payroll, had to raise capital for a business venture, deliver on that capital, and been responsible for making decisions which determined whether people were paid or starved, is not really somebody I trust to be in charge of the nation's wallet/pocketbook, bank accounts, and investments.

Not commented upon much is the fact that every American presidential election has become a world election of sorts. Multiple foreign governments have *always* tried to influence our elections and that number may have been growing recently.

So, this is quite likely a severely oversimplified shorthand of the "sides" blatantly taken but the more I read about that bogus dossier, the more I think it applicable. Think of it in the terms of a World War II context, where alliances of convenience had to be endured.

On the left, the (relatively-speaking) bad guys. On the right, the (relatively-speaking) good guys:

In order to pass a bill (including a spending bill) you need a majority in House and Senate, and the Presidency to sign it . . . or, a two-thirds majority in both houses. Reps never had either. Failing to pass those bills, the choices are: shutdown or no shutdown.

But what makes Speaker Ryan most dangerous is that he is risk averse in this era when we need BOLD leadership....not more wonk.

Leadership in the sense you mean is the bailiwick of the President. The Speaker pushes legislation. And I hope we can agree the most pressing legislative issue we have before us is the out of control budget.

The way that's supposed to work is: President submits a budget proposal, House writes a bill, Senate marks it up/writes their own bill, it goes to conference, passes both houses, and goes to the President for signature and execution. The piece we're waiting on right now is . . . the first one.

Ryan is the right guy in the right place (in my opinion, of course), and I could give the first bloody carp whether he ever made a payroll.